g an interview, or
even when meeting in the street; though as this rather unreasonable
rule has been steadily ignored by foreigners, chiefly, no doubt, from
unacquaintance with it, the Chinese themselves make no attempt to
observe it so far as foreigners are concerned. In like manner, it is
most unbecoming for any "read-book man," no matter how miserably poor he
is, to receive a stranger, or be seen himself abroad, in short clothes;
but this rule, too, is often relaxed in the presence of foreigners, who
wear short clothes themselves. Honest poverty is no crime in China,
nor is it in any way regarded as cause for shame; it is even more amply
redeemed by scholarship than is the case in Western countries. A man
who has gained a degree moves on a different level from the crowd around
him, so profound is the respect shown to learning. If a foreigner can
speak Chinese intelligibly, his character as a barbarian begins to be
perceptibly modified; and if to the knack of speech he adds a tolerable
acquaintance with the sacred characters which form the written language,
he becomes transfigured, as one in whom the influence of the holy men of
old is beginning to prevail over savagery and ignorance.

It is not without reason that the term "sacred" is applied above to the
written words or characters. The Chinese, recognizing the extraordinary
results which have been brought about, silently and invisibly, by
the operation of written symbols, have gradually come to invest these
symbols with a spirituality arousing a feeling somewhat akin to worship.
A piece of paper on which a single word has once been written or
printed, becomes something other than paper with a black mark on it.
It may not be lightly tossed about, still less trampled underfoot; it
should be reverently destroyed by fire, here again used as a medium of
transmission to the great Beyond; and thus its spiritual essence will
return to those from whom it originally came. In the streets of a
Chinese city, and occasionally along a frequented highroad, may be seen
small ornamental structures into which odd bits of paper may be thrown
and burnt, thus preventing a desecration so painful to the Chinese mind;
and it has often been urged against foreigners that because they are
so careless as to what becomes of their written and printed paper, the
matter contained in foreign documents and books must obviously be of no
great value. It is even considered criminal to use printed matter